How To Use Expired Olive Oil – 12 Fantastic Ways
As you may know, olive oil doesn’t last forever. It should be consumed after 18-24 months of harvest date. That’s why it’s important for you to know how to properly store olive oil. Anyway, even though olive oil may be expired, that doesn’t mean that we can’t further use it. You shouldn’t consume it, but there are some fantastic ways to use expired extra virgin olive oil. Today, I’ll show you the best ways to use expired extra virgin olive oil.
Also, this method works for all kinds of olive oils, but I always mention extra virgin olive oil since it’s the best type of olive oil you can get out there. Probably the most important thing why you would want to use expired olive oil is because it’s not cheap. So, it would be a shame to throw it away just because of the expiration date.
12 Ways To Use Expired Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Expired olive oil may not be good for salads, cooking, marinating, etc., but it’s a fantastic choice for various things, which you can see below.
1. Polishing The Furniture
Olive oil is a fantastic natural choice to polish all kinds of wooden furniture, especially if you have some furniture made from olive wood. Applying it will give the furniture additional shine and also increase the furniture’s life. Olive oil is also essential for polishing wooden cutting boards, and many professionals do it – so why wouldn’t you?!
Just mix old olive oil with lemon juice and work it into the surface by using a microfiber towel. Then, wipe it off and polish it to the shine.
2. Grease Creaky Doors
Nobody likes creaky doors. If you don’t have any silicon spray or WD40 at home, using olive oil to fix creaky doors is a fantastic replacement. It’ll grease all the hinges, and that creaky sound should disappear in no time.
Just make sure not to use plenty of olive oil. You don’t need a lot. Just a few drops per hinge will be more than enough to grease them.
3. Removing Dye From Your Skin
Dye, especially when it dries off, can be very hard to remove from your skin. By using olive oil, you’ll be able to quickly remove it from your skin.
Just apply some olive oil to your skin, let it soak for a minute, and scrub it off. Wash your hands again with soap, and all the dye should be removed. Sometimes, if the dye is extremely strong, you may need to repeat it twice.
4. Leather Conditioning
Expired olive oil can be a great leather conditioner. If you have any leather furniture, jackets, bags, or any other apparel, you could use olive oil instead of leather conditioners. It’ll help the leather to stay in like-new condition for longer.
Just put some olive oil on a clean microfiber cloth and gently work it into the leather. However, the only con is that the leather will smell like olive oil.
5. Makeup Removal
Many women have allergic reactions to all kinds of various chemicals used in makeup removal products. Luckily, olive oil can be used instead of those products. It’ll easily remove any makeup and also clean your face and skin from all impurities.
Pour a few drops of olive oil onto the cotton wool and gently wipe your skin with it. After that, wash your face with water and natural soap.
6. Hair Regenerator
If your hair is dry and lacks vibrancy, you can use olive oil to fix those problems. Olive oil will help condition your hair, so it becomes moisturized and more vibrant. Also, olive oil will reduce hair breakage and split ends, which is fantastic.
Just take a spoon of extra virgin olive oil and rub it into your hair. Massage the scalp while applying olive oil, and then let it sit for 20-ish minutes, and wash your hair. You’ll immediately spot the difference.
7. Moisturizing Dry Skin
If you have problems with dry skin, instead of buying expensive creams, you could use extra virgin olive oil. It’ll moisturize dry skin, making it smooth and soft. I had problems with a dry elbow, and ever since I started applying olive oil to it, all the dryness disappeared.
If you have cracked heels, olive oil will help with that, too. Massage some olive oil into your heels, let it sit for 30 minutes, and then wash your feet in warm water. The same is true for any other dry body part.
Another fantastic usage of olive oil for skin is after a full day of sun. During the summer, we all are exposed to the sun a lot. When you come home in the evening, use some olive oil to provide your skin with all the minerals it needs to stay nourished.
8. Strengthening The Nails
Brittle nails are a very common problem nowadays, especially among the women population. Mostly, that’s because of the constant usage of nail polishes. If you want to strengthen your nails, make a short pause of polishes and apply expired olive oil to them.
Pour some olive oil into the bowl, let it warm up to room temperature, and plunk your nails inside and keep them for 10-20 minutes. After that, gently wipe off your nails with some soft cloth, let the nails soak up all that oil, and then wash your hands or feet.
9. Remove Dead Skin Cells
Olive oil is a fantastic exfoliant, which may help you remove dead skin cells, especially on your face. However, you’ll need some other ingredients, too.
Combine olive oil, ground coffee, sugar, and sea salt. Mix them, apply them to your skin, and massage them for a few minutes. After that, wipe the skin with clean cotton wool and wash. Your skin should now be both clean and conditioned.
10. Get Rid of Dandruff
Dandruff is a very common problem. I had problems with that, and I know how disappointing it is to pay tens of bucks for various products that don’t help. Even if they help, they’re usually loaded with chemicals that are dangerous to your hair.
That’s why using expired olive oil may be a better choice. It’s cheaper (you already have it), and it’s much safer for your hair. It’ll hydrate the dry skin on the scalp and, in the end, prevent it from flaking. Just take some olive oil, massage it to your scalp, let it sit for a few minutes, and wash your hair with a mild hair shampoo.
11. Shaving Cream Replacement
If you suddenly run out of shaving cream, but you have some old olive oil, you can use it as a shaving cream substitute. It’ll make shaving extremely smooth but will also moisturize skin, so you don’t have to use any lotions later on.
Apply some olive oil onto your beard, legs, arms, or whatever other body part you want to shave, let it sit for a minute, and then gently shave with a sharp razor. Sometimes, it may even be too slippery, so make sure to be concentrated and careful not to cut yourself.
12. Use It In Your Garden
Olive oil comes from nature, and if we can return it to nature somehow, that would be amazing. Luckily, you can use expired olive oil for various tasks in your garden. Olive oil contains ingredients such as fatty acids and vitamins E and K, which are extremely important for growing plants.
However, don’t use olive oil for every purpose in your garden. Sometimes, it may even damage plants. So, make sure to learn the proper ways of using expired olive oil on plants and soils.
Does Olive Oil Expire?
Olive oil is just like any other natural product; it has a shelf life. If you can, always consume olive oil within the “best before” date. Mostly, olive oil lasts anywhere between 18-24 months after the olives have been harvested (preferably 12 months).
After opening the bottle of olive oil, try to spend it within two months (60 days). And make sure to use the right containers to keep the oil fresh for longer.
After the expiration date, you can still use olive oil, but not inside the kitchen (for consumption). Use it in various ways I mentioned above. Try to spend it as soon as possible, but anything less than four years from the harvest date should be fine. If you still don’t spend it even after four years, then you should think of disposing of expired olive oil.
Wrap Up
Unlike wine, olive oil doesn’t get better with time. And even though it’s not poisonous to consume expired olive oil, it’ll taste very bad and will lose some fantastic nutrients. However, even though it’s not good to consume expired olive oil for foodstuff, you should think about spending it in the many fantastic ways I mentioned above. I hope that at least one way will help you spend any olive oil leftovers you have.
Also, when you spend all the olive oil, you’ll have some olive oil bottles. There are also some fantastic ways to use old olive oil bottles, so make sure to check them out, too.